Bridget smile Day 19 of 100 faces in 100 days

One of the things I do when I want to have fun or be around people is to go thrift store shopping. I love to mill around and look for priceless treasures. It feels like treasure hunting to me especially when I get something for just a dollar.. i don't always buy something. I find that many of the workers in the thrift stores are volunteers and they're often very friendly. I get a conversation in here and there and this makes me happy.

I mentioned yesterday that I was thinking of doing something different with regards to the painting and I'd thought I might do portraits of people I run into during my day. While I was in the first thrift store yesterday a woman walked by me that looked familiar and she was friendly and said hello .. we both sort of thought the other looked familiar.  We didn't know each other. Her smile was infectious. We had a little conversation going and I thought hmmmm and even though it was a bit out of my comfort zone I told her what I was doing, with painting 100 faces etc. and showed her some of my portraits and she was very sweet and said she embarassingly gushed over my faces and said she thought that yesterdays portrait looked like her room mate. Then i just popped out the question, "would you mind if I took a photo of you to paint? I'm looking for faces to paint." and she said "Yes" .. woo hooo .. i was so happy that she was willing. Then I realized the pressure .. would it look like her? Will she like how I interpret her face with paint? I had to remind myself that this was an exercise and most of all .. I met an amazingly joyful woman. Beautiful in her heart .. things that she spoke of touched my heart. As we stood at the counter paying for our trinkets (yes I bought something lol) I heard her say that she was needing a new book to read while she rode home on the bus. We chatted a few more minutes and meandered out the door then I asked if I could give her a ride home. She was excited and said where she lived .. not too far but too far to walk in the heat of the day though. So off we went......we talked about many things on that short ride to her house. One thing stuck with me.. she told me that she lived across the street from a church and her friends would often ask her why she didn't go to that church.  She said, "my spirit won't let me go there, and I go where God leads my spirit."  She was emphatic about this and there we were. She hugged me good bye and I was off with a smile in my heart.
So Ms. Bridget .. I hope that you love the portrait .. you gladdened my heart. Strong tall woman with a big smile. I hope I did it justice .. i'm finding that painting a smile is challenging. I'm not sure that you can get the sense of it in this photo but on the paper .. i see that smile and it makes me smile. Thank you for being my model.

And yes today's portrait is approximately 8 x 10 not always straight on all sides .. it's machine stitched wrapping paper and painted in acrylic. Today's painting is $19 ...Contact me or leave a comment if you would like to purchase today's painting. Thanks for following me on this journey. Have a fabulous day!!!